Recently two friends went out of their way at the same school event to issue putdowns towards liturgical worship in the Lutheran church.

One was raised Lutheran. She is a member of a Lutheran church and attends regularly. She had visited a local congregation of an Evangelical denomination. She told my wife she liked the worship there, whereas in her Lutheran church, “The liturgy is just man-made.”

The other is an Elder in an Evangelical church. Following a glancing reference to my wife’s and my LCMS church, he said, “You might as well say ten Hail Marys.”

These putdowns prompt me to affirm four simple things about the historic liturgy.